Grand Falls-Windsor outwork Clarenville in 5-1 Game 1 victory

Clarenville Caribous Steve Yetman tries to get a shot past Grand Falls-Windsor Cataracts goaltender Mark Yetman in first-period action of Game 1 of the best-of-seven Telegram Herder Memorial Trophy Championship Series at Mile One Centre on Saturday night. At right is Nick Theriault of the Cataracts. Grand Falls-Windsor won 5-1.

The Clarenville Caribous used their speed and ability to cycle the puck to control the first 10 minutes of Game 1 of the Telegram Herder Memorial Trophy Championship Series at Mile One Saturday night.

After that, however, it was almost all Cataracts as the team from Grand Falls-Windsor went on to collect a 5-1 win.

“That’s what we wanted to do,” says Cataracts goalie Mark Yetman “We wanted to weather the first 10 minutes.”

Yetman, who is coming off back-to-back shutouts over the Corner Brook Royals in the semifinal round, stopped 24 of 25 shots faced and credits his defencemen with doing a great job in front of him.

“Our gap was a big thing,” Yetman says. “Every time we turned over up by their blueline they’d want to counter attack and come at us quick, but we were just shutting them down.”

Even though they controlled most of the opening frame, Clarenville mustered just six shots on Yetman. Caribous coach Ivan Hapgood says where the Cataracts’ goalie is concerned, his team will have to do better.

“He’s no different goalie in this league, if you let him see the puck he’s going to stop it, so we’ve got to get some traffic in front of him and take more shots.”

Getting more shots out of his team proved difficult in Game 1 as his stable of highly skilled forwards seemed tentative in the face of hard checking and suffocating defence from the Cataracts.

“They had a third guy back most times, so it wasn’t so easy to execute in their end.”

That said, Hapgood contends his team might have been trying to do too much with the puck on their stick.

“We were looking for the trailing guy and looking to make too many passes. We had been concentrating on shoot-shoot-shoot all along. Tonight, for some reason, we got away from that and tried to make the extra passes.”

Clarenville netminder Jason Churchill looked shaky from the start, giving up two goals on the first four shots. Hapgood was undecided whether he will stick with the Allan Cup MVP goalie or turn to backup Devin O’Brien for Game 2 on Sunday.

Chad Earle led the Cats’ attack with two goals, Andre Gill finished with a goal and a helper, with singles from Martin Lapointe, and David Philpott.

Matt Bragg scored the Herd's only goal, a powerplay marker.

The series resumes 2 p.m. Sunday with Game 2 at Mile One Centre in St. John’s. The Telegram will once again be providing play-by-play updates at thetelegram.com.

Clarenville Caribous Steve Yetman tries to get a shot past Grand Falls-Windsor Cataracts goaltender Mark Yetman in first-period action of Game 1 of the best-of-seven Telegram Herder Memorial Trophy Championship Series at Mile One Centre on Saturday night. At right is Nick Theriault of the Cataracts. Grand Falls-Windsor won 5-1.

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Patsy

March 25, 2012 - 08:27

Way to go, Cateracts! You've got the winning combination from the goalie, Mark Yetman, who has proved time and again, that he is in control and unbeatable! The defense and forwards that can shut down the opposing players and score those goals!! Keep focused on that trophy and win it in 4! We'll be cheering you on today at Mile One! Go Cats, Go!!!